Programming is the art of telling another human being what one wants the computer to do.
Computer programming is an art, because it applies accumulated knowledge to the world, because it requires skill and ingenuity, and especially because it produces objects of beauty. A programmer who subconsciously views himself as an artist will enjoy what he does and will do it better.
Always remember, however, that there’s usually a simpler and better way to do something than the first way that pops into your head.
We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil.
When you write a program, think of it primarily as a work of literature. You're trying to write something that human beings are going to read. Don't think of it primarily as something a computer is going to follow. The more effective you are at making your program readable, the more effective it's going to be: You'll understand it today, you'll understand it next week, and your successors who are going to maintain and modify it will understand it.
Computers are good at following instructions, but not at reading your mind.
Programs are meant to be read by humans and only incidentally for computers to execute.
If you find that you're spending almost all your time on theory, start turning some attention to practical things; it will improve your theories. If you find that you're spending almost all your time on practice, start turning some attention to theoretical things; it will improve your practice.
If you optimize everything, you will always be unhappy.
Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it.
It is much more rewarding to do more with less.
Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer. Art is everything else we do.
Premature optimization is the root of all evil.
Email is a wonderful thing for people whose role in life is to be on top of things. But not for me; my role is to be on the bottom of things. What I do takes long hours of studying and uninterruptible concentration.
The psychological profiling [of a programmer] is mostly the ability to shift levels of abstraction, from low level to high level. To see something in the small and to see something in the large.
An algorithm must be seen to be believed.
People think that computer science is the art of geniuses but the actual reality is the opposite, just many people doing things that build on each other, like a wall of mini stones.
The enjoyment of one's tools is an essential ingredient of successful work.
Everyday life is like programming, I guess. If you love something you can put beauty into it.
The best programs are written so that computing machines can perform them quickly and so that human beings can understand them clearly. A programmer is ideally an essayist who works with traditional aesthetic and literary forms as well as mathematical concepts, to communicate the way that an algorithm works and to convince a reader that the results will be correct.
Random numbers should not be generated with a method chosen at random
The best theory is inspired by practice.
AI has by now succeeded in doing essentially everything that requires 'thinking' but has failed to do most of what people and animals do 'without thinking'-that, somehow, is much harder.
By understanding a machine-oriented language, the programmer will tend to use a much more efficient method; it is much closer to reality.
The most important thing in the programming language is the name. A language will not succeed without a good name. I have recently invented a very good name and now I am looking for a suitable language.
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